BLP Conversations: Dana Sachs and Dina Nayeri

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

An image with three parts. 1. A photo of Dana Sachs by Belinda Keller. 2. The BLP logo, a black outline of a book with a DNA strand down the spine. 3. A photo of Dina Nayeri by Anna Leader.

In this conversation Dana Sachs, author of All Else Failed, and Dina Nayeri, author of Who Gets Believed?, discuss the art of individualizing the universal, the concept of good storytelling across cultures, and the benefit of finding just the right word for the story. Their conversation is part of the BLP Conversations series from Bellevue Literary Press, featuring dialogues that explore the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences.

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BLP Conversations: Amanda Dennis and Dr. Molly J. Crockett

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

In this conversation Amanda Dennis, author of Her Here, and Dr. Molly J. Crockett, associate professor of psychology at Princeton, discuss selfhood, the connection between narrative self-making and mental health, and the complicated nature of truth. Their conversation is part of the BLP Conversations series from Bellevue Literary Press, featuring dialogues that explore the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences.

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Eduardo Halfon talks about Canción and how his entire body of work functions as a “novela en marcha—an ongoing novel” at Asymptote.

BLP Conversations: Siobhan Phillips & Alicia Kennedy

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

 

 

In this conversation Siobhan Phillips, author of Benefit, and Alicia Kennedy, a writer based in San Juan who focuses on food culture and whose cultural and culinary history of plant-based eating will be published in 2023, discuss food writing, labor, the history of sugar, and the revolutionary potential of recipes. Their conversation is part of the BLP Conversations series from Bellevue Literary Press, featuring dialogues that explore the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences.

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BLP Conversations: Maud Casey & Jason Tougaw

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

Photo of author Maud Casey on the left, with photographer credit to Zach Veilleux. In the middle of the image, the BLP logo. On the right, a photo of author Jason Tougaw, with credit to photographer David Driver.

In this conversation, Maud Casey, author of City of Incurable Women, and Jason Tougaw, author of The One You Get: Portrait of a Family Organism and The Elusive Brain: Literary Experiments in the Age of Neuroscience, discuss the importance of touch, the relationship between porousness and boundaries, and what can be accomplished by reaching back in time through archives. This conversation is part of the BLP Conversations series from Bellevue Literary Press, featuring dialogues that explore the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences.

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Looking for a great book club novel? Klaus Modick’s Moss is a Reading Group Choices “Editors’ Pick” selection!

BLP Conversations: Lisa Olstein & Paul Lisicky

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

In this conversation, Lisa Olstein, member of the poetry faculty at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Pain Studies, and Paul Lisicky, associate professor at Rutgers University-Camden and author of Later: My Life at the Edge of the World, discuss the coronavirus pandemic, the connection between illness and vulnerability, and the awe-inspiring feeling of being alive. This conversation is part of the BLP Conversations series from Bellevue Literary Press, featuring dialogues that explore the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences.

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Listen to Lisa Olstein discuss Pain Studies on the State of Us podcast and read interviews with her about the book in Sightlines Magazine, New Delta Review, and Synapsis.

The tenth anniversary edition of Paul Harding’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Tinkers is an Indie Next List for Reading Groups selection! Discover more about the independent booksellers and other literary champions who “made Tinkers happen” in Bookselling This Week.

Join the Asymptote Book Club discussion about Juan José Millás’s “spectacularly surreal and cerebral” novel From the Shadows and read more about Thomas Bunstead and Daniel Hahn’s co-translation process.

Lisa Olstein talks to Elizabeth McCracken about taking a poet’s approach to research and the eclectic sources informing Pain Studies at The Rumpus.

View the Pain Studies-inspired comic collaboration between Lisa Olstein and artist Lauren Haldeman at Poetry Northwest.

Huzzah! Juan José Millás’s novel From the Shadows, translated from the Spanish by Daniel Hahn and Thomas Bunstead, is a Publishers Weekly Top 10 Book of the Year, Thrillist Best Book of the Year, and World Literature Today Notable Translation of the YearWill Eaves’s novel Murmur is a Wall Street Journal Distinctive Novel of the Year, and an Advocate and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year; and Norman Lock’s Feast Day of the Cannibals is an Advocate Best LGBTQ Novel of the Year!

Read an excerpt from Feast Day of the Cannibals at Big Other.

BLP Conversations: Jeffrey J. Kripal & John Horgan

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

In this conversation, Jeffrey J. Kripal, professor of religion at Rice University and author of The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge, and John Horgan, science journalist and author of Mind-Body Problems, discuss the benefits and shortfalls of the scientific method, the nature of consciousness and knowledge, and how to remain spiritually optimistic. This conversation is part of the BLP Conversations series from Bellevue Literary Press, featuring dialogues that explore the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences.

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The Bear is an NEA Big Read selection, LibraryReads Pick, Apple Books Best of the Month selection, and Buzz Books by Publishers Lunch selection. Discover the origins of this powerful story in Library Journal.

 

Check out the opening section of Will Eaves’s award–winning novel Murmur at the Literary Hub and read more from him about the novel in the Guardian and Stay Thirsty Magazine.

Richard Wiley talks about Tacoma Stories and some of the city’s famous daughters (Rebecca Welles), infamous sons (Ted Bundy), and legendary watering holes with the Tacoma News TribuneStay Thirsty Magazine, and Desert Companion Magazine.

Jeffrey J. Kripal discusses The Flip—and the role that both science and the humanities can play in understanding consciousness—with Reading Religion, at Rice University, and on MeaningofLife.tv.

“Who Gets to Use Black English?” John McWhorter, author of Talking Back, Talking Black, writes about African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in the Atlantic and discusses his op-ed on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show.

Paul Harding shares his reflections about Tinkers and its extraordinary backstory with New York magazine’s Vulture and at the Literary Hub, and discusses writing about God and faith on the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast.

Read an excerpt from Jerome Charyn’s In the Shadow of King Saul: Essays on Silence and Song at the Literary Hub and find interviews with him about the collection in Publishers Weekly and Stay Thirsty Magazine.

 

The Pulitzer Prizes commemorates the tenth anniversary of Tinkers with author Paul Harding’s exclusive introduction to the opening pages of the novel.

Tinkers Turns 10—And Stays Remarkable” Publishers Weekly celebrates the tenth anniversary edition of Paul Harding’s Tinkers and Shelf Awareness “rediscovers” the novel.

Looking for the best books of the year? William E. Glassley’s A Wilder Time: Notes from a Geologist at the Edge of the Greenland Ice is a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the YearEduardo Halfon’s novel Mourning is a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, Smithsonian magazine Favorite Book of the Year, and more!; Diane DeSanders’ debut novel Hap and Hazard and the End of the World is a Lone Star Literary Life Top Twenty Texas Book of the Year; and  Bessora and Barroux’s graphic novel Alpha: Abidjan to Paris is a Library Journal Best Book of the Year, School Library Journal Best Adult Book 4 Teens, and Comics Journal Best Comic of the Year!

Norman Lock discusses The Wreckage of Eden with Publishers Weekly.

Congratulations to Jonathan D. Moreno, author of Impromptu Man, Mind Wars, and The Body Politic, on receiving the 2018 American Society for Bioethics and Humanities Lifetime Achievement Award!

BLP Conversations: Helen Benedict & Nina Berman

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

In this conversation, two faculty members of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, who work in very different mediums yet are just as much artists as they are journalists, discuss common themes in their most recent books. Helen Benedict—author of the novel Wolf Season, among several others, as well as an essayist and journalist—and Nina Berman—a photographer, filmmaker, and writer whose most recent book is An Autobiography of Miss Wish—tackle social injustice, violence against women, and the devastating effects of war while pushing back against the stereotyping of victims. This conversation is part of the BLP Conversations series from Bellevue Literary Press, featuring dialogues that explore the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences.

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Listen to Will Eaves discuss Murmur and tune in to actor Blake Ritson’s dramatic reading from the novel at the BBC.

Read an interview with Will Eaves about Murmur.

Diane DeSanders discusses the inspirations for her debut novel, Hap and Hazard and the End of the World, with Powell’s BooksVol. 1 Brooklyn, and Lone Star Literary Life, and on KMSU’s Weekly Reader Radio Show.

Congratulations to Wolf Season, a Firecracker Award Finalist and National Reading Group Month “Great Group Read” selected by the Women’s National Book Association. Find additional resources for the novel—including an interview, excerpt, reviews, discussion questions, and more—at BookBrowse.

Watch Helen Benedict talk about Wolf Season on the WGBH News segment “Bringing War’s Reality Home: Talking Fiction With Writer Helen Benedict.”

BLP Conversations: John McWhorter & Kia Corthron

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

In this conversation, John McWhorter, linguist and author of Talking Back, Talking Black, and Kia Corthron, playwright and author of the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize–winning The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter, discuss what makes a language “standard,” cultural acceptance of Black English and Black American Sign Language, and accents in literary dialogue, in life, and in the movies. This conversation is part of the BLP Conversations series from Bellevue Literary Press, featuring dialogues that explore the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences.

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Rose-Lynn Fisher shares the story behind (and images from) The Topography of Tears with NPRSouthwest: The Magazine, LA Weekly, Lenscratch, Feature Shoot, and Angelus magazine. Enjoy more from the book at the Marginalian and Los Angeles Review of Books.

John McWhorter talks about Talking Back, Talking Black in the Talks at Google series and on C-SPAN’s Book TV, WNYC’s All Things ConsideredTablet magazine’s Unorthodox podcast, Slate’s Lexicon Valley podcast, and the Mixed Experience podcast. He also discusses the book in the Heleo Conversations series and with Columbia Magazine, Columbia College Today, and Literary Ashland.

Congratulations to our International DUBLIN Literary Award longlisted novel The Attempt and Housatonic Book Award Finalist A Road Unforeseen: Women Fight the Islamic State.

Read an interview with Nicholas Fox Weber about Freud’s Trip to Orvieto and his own adventures in psychoanalysis in the Vienna Psychoanalyst.

Peter LaSalle discusses the influence of Jorge Luis Borges’ Ficciones on Sleeping Mask: Fictions at Beatrice and makes the case for the short story as “tour de force,” gifting readers “the feeling of having been transported somewhere new and important via the whirlwind of the words” at TSP: The official blog of The Story Prize.

 

Richard Wiley discusses writing and his novel Bob Stevenson with the Tacoma Weekly.

Congratulations to Jerome Charyn, whose A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century has been named to the Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award Short List and the PEN/ Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography Longlist, and is a Firecracker Award Finalist.

Board Member Jan Vilcek Named Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors

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Dr. Vilcek receiving the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2013.

“I’m thrilled and honored by this recognition, and to be named among this group that has contributed so much to humanity.” —Dr. Vilcek

Bellevue Literary Press board member and research professor at NYU School of Medicine Jan Vilcek holds 46 U.S. patents and is co-inventor of Remicade, an anti-inflammatory drug that has improved the health of millions of people worldwide. In a new addition to his list of accolades, Dr. Vilcek has been selected as a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, which honors leaders in academic invention whose discoveries have made a significant impact on quality of life. We are immensely grateful to Dr. Vilcek for his service on our board and congratulate him on this latest honor for the extraordinary contributions he has made to the arts and science communities.


Helen Benedict discusses her novel Wolf Season and the challenges of writing about women and war on KPFA’s Bookwaves on Cover to Cover, KMSU’s Weekly Reader Radio Show, and Woodstock Booktalk Radio, and with Publishers Weekly, The CommonStay Thirsty MagazineNeworld ReviewMichigan DailyWest Side SpiritHuffPost, Read Her Like an Open BookSnowflakes in a Blizzard, authors Caroline Leavitt and Katey SchultzPowell’s Books, and the Columbia Journalism School.

The Kansas City Public Library and Kansas City Star have selected Helen Benedict’s novel Wolf Season for the “FYI Book Club.” Join the discussion, read an excerpt from the novel, and find an interview with the author in the Kansas City Star.

Read an in-depth interview with Paul Harding about his work at the Millions and listen to Christopher Lydon’s interviews with him about Tinkers and Enon on WBUR Open Source.

Helen Benedict discusses issues facing sexual abuse victims with Michel Martin on NPR’s All Things Considered and offers a short list of actionable items “to make #MeToo stick this time” at CNN.

Watch Paul Harding discuss the story behind Tinkers on PBS NewsHour.

Listen to Paul Harding and BLP publisher Erika Goldman discuss the Pulitzer Prize win on NPR Weekend Edition.

Read about the dramatic Tinkers “Cinderella story” in the New York Times and elsewhere.

The Measure of Darkness has received the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction! The novel has also been selected as a “Great Group Read” by the Women’s National Book Association, which celebrates National Reading Group Month through its publication of an annual “amazing list of books perfect for discussion and conversation in any book club.”

Congratulations to Bellevue Literary Press board member Jan Vilcek, who has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, which honors leaders in academic invention whose discoveries have made a significant impact on quality of life. Dr. Vilcek is also the recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Congratulations to our 2017 Firecracker Award Finalists: Liam Durcan’s novel The Measure of Darkness, Norman Lock’s novel The Port-Wine Stain, and Jerome Charyn’s A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century!

BLP Conversations: Paul Harding & David Oshinsky

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

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In honor of the Pulitzer Prize centennial celebrations, Paul Harding, author of Tinkers (2010 winner for Fiction), and David Oshinsky, author of Polio: An American Story (2006 winner for History), sat down to discuss the responsibility of the writer in treating questions of medical science, and the power of authorial imagination to evoke the lived experience of illness in fiction and nonfiction. This conversation was supported by the Pulitzer Prize Campfire Initiative and hosted by the NYU Center for the Humanities.

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Listen to Paul Harding read from Tinkers on KQED Writers’ Block.

Tune in to the Diane Rehm Show “Readers’ Review” book club discussion about Tinkers.

Brian Booker shares the stories behind his debut collection Are You Here For What I’m Here For? with the Rumpus and One Story.

Watch neurologist and novelist Liam Durcan discuss The Measure of Darkness here and read more interviews with him in the Globe and Mail and Montreal Gazette.

Jerome Charyn talks to the Brooklyn Rail and Late Night Library about A Loaded Gun, his lifelong fascination with Emily Dickinson, and the art of biography.

Pascale Kramer discusses her novel Autopsy of a Father and the subject of “fear” with fellow women writers at the Red Ink series, via the Literary Hub.

Congratulations to Pascale Kramer, author of The Child and Autopsy of a Father, who received the 2017 Swiss Grand Prize for Literature, awarded for the her entire body of work by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture.

Robert Lopez talks about Good People with the Los Angeles Review of Books, Kirkus Reviews, Barrelhouse magazineVol. 1 BrooklynLate Night LibraryAbout.comMcColl Center for Art + Innovation, and on the Weekly Reader.

BLP Conversations: Norman Lock & Constantin Severin

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

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In this conversation, Norman Lock, author of, most recently, the American Novels series, and Romanian visual artist Constantin Severin, founder of the Archetypal Expressionism movement, explore ecstatic visions, healing the world through metaphoric language, and the ways their work seeks to “quote” the past for the purpose of enriching the present.

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Tune in to Science Friday to hear Ira Flatow and Colin Ellard discuss psychogeography and read an excerpt from Places of the Heartthen listen in on more interviews with Colin Ellard on NPR’s Here & Now and Rudy Maxa’s World.

Eduardo Halfon discusses Guatemalan politics and protest movements with Linda Wertheimer on NPR Weekend Edition and tells the harrowing story behind his need to leave the country in the Guardian.

BLP Conversations: Cormac James & Philip Hoare

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

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In this conversation, Cormac James, author of the novel The Surfacing, and Philip Hoare—whose nonfiction works such as The Whale and The Sea Inside blur the line between literary and natural history—ruminate on the ever-evolving relationship between man and nature, and how that relationship is enriched through literature and science.

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A Solemn Pleasure is being called “altogether magnificent” (Marginalian), a “best book for writers” (Poets & Writers), a “best book about books” (Literary Hub), a book that will help graduates change the world (Foreword Reviews), and one that “may be the handbook of the modern writer” (Brookline Booksmith Small Press Book Club).

Congratulations to Sharona Muir, whose first novel, Invisible Beasts, is a Dublin Literary Award Longlist selection and an Orion Book Award Finalist!

BLP Conversations: Michael Coffey & Mark Epstein

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

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In this conversation, Michael Coffey, author of the short story collection The Business of Naming Things, and Mark Epstein, M.D., a psychiatrist and author known for exploring the interplay of Buddhism and psychotherapy, discuss the life and work of Samuel Beckett, emotional experiences that surpass language, and literature as a means toward self-discovery and mindfulness.

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Watch Meredith Tax discuss Rojava and A Road Unforeseen, with Carne Ross and Debbie Bookchin, at the Left Forum (beginning at approx. 15:30 min. mark).

Read an excerpt from Meredith Tax’s A Road Unforeseen: Women Fight the Islamic State in the Utne Reader.

The New York Public LibraryOakland Public Library, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and Bookish all agree—Robert Lopez’s Good People should be on your reading list.

Michael Coffey talks about The Business of Naming Things on NCPR News and Library Journal’s Barbara Hoffert tells Kojo Nnamdi Show listeners why the short story collection should be on everyone’s reading list.

BLP Conversations: Jonathan D. Moreno & John Pankow

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

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In this conversation, Jonathan D. Moreno, author of Impromptu Man: J.L. Moreno and the Origins of Psychodrama, Encounter Culture, and the Social Network, speaks to actor John Pankow who plays television executive Merc Lapidus on the Showtime/BBC series Episodes. Together they examine the psychological petri dish of group theater and the ways it grew to influence science and life offstage.

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Read more from Colin Ellard’s Places of the Heart in Slate and Aeon magazine, and embark on a virtual walking tour of New York with Colin in a 5-parts series from Pulse of the Planet: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5.

Jonathan D. Moreno discusses Impromptu Man and the life and contributions of J.L. Moreno on WHYY’s Radio Times and on Medscape Close-Up.

Gregory Spatz discusses the discovery of the HMS Erebus and his Franklin expedition-inspired novel Inukshuk with Doug Dorst at the Brooklyn Rail.

Read excerpts from Monastery in Shelf Unbound (p. 34); White Review; Words Without Borders; and on the PEN American Center website.

BLP Conversations: Sharona Muir & Christof Koch

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

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In this conversation, Sharona Muir, author of the highly acclaimed debut novel Invisible Beasts, speaks to Christof Koch, Chief Scientific Officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Science and author of numerous books, about our scientific understanding of consciousness and subjectivity in relation to art and culture. As their thinking pushes beyond the realm of modern humans, they relate these topics to prehistoric man and the animal kingdom.

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Alan Hirshfeld discusses Starlight Detectives on Science for the People and reveals the stories behind “10 astronomers [including two extraordinary women] you’ve (probably) never heard of” at BBC History Magazine.

Listen to librarian extraordinaire and “NPR’s go-to books guru” Nancy Pearl discuss Understories with Steve Inskeep on NPR’s Morning Edition and with Steve Scher on KUOW’s The Record; and watch her describe how her “favorite collection of short stories in recent memory” is part of a new tradition of “elastic realism” in contemporary literature.

BLP Conversations: David C. Cassidy & Dava Sobel

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

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In this conversation, David C. Cassidy, author of Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and the Bomb, and best–selling science writer Dava Sobel discuss the “quantum leap of creative imagination” it took to make the transition into writing historical science drama. Staged readings of their first plays—Cassidy’s Farm Hall, about captured German nuclear scientists at the end of World War II, and Sobel’s And the Sun Stood Still, about Nicolaus Copernicus—were presented before meetings of the American Physical Society.

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Read an excerpt from Impromptu Man and an interview with Jonathan D. Moreno in the Pennsylvania Gazette.

BLP Conversations: Mary Cappello & Christine Montross

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

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In this conversation, Mary Cappello, author of the memoir Awkward: A Detour, explores the divergence between literary and psychiatric narratives of disease with Dr. Christine Montross, a practicing psychiatrist and poet. Together, they delve into the disconcerting pleasures of poetry and the mysterious unknowability of the mind. Continue reading…


Find out why Publishers Weekly calls author Sharona Muir “A Literary Game Changer” in their “First Fiction: Anticipated Debuts” feature story; view artist Kristen Radtke’s beautiful graphic review of Invisible Beastsand tune in to the PW Radio podcast to listen to the author discuss her work.

Norman Lock talks to Scott Simon on NPR Weekend Edition, and with Slice magazine, Construction magazine, and the Playwrights Theatre of NJ about Mark Twain, Huck Finn, and how his own experience during Hurricane Sandy inspired his novel The Boy in His Winter.

Congratulations to David C. Cassidy, author of Beyond Uncertainty and recipient of the 2014 Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics, awarded by the American Physical Society!

BLP Conversations: Tim Horvath & Mark Changizi

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass. Horvath-Changizi-banner

In this conversation, Tim Horvath, author of the short story collection Understories, and Mark Changizi, a theoretical cognitive scientist, discuss the evolutionary science behind language and reading, while exploring the brain’s response to written language and music, and the potential for harnessing both in evocative fiction. Continue reading…


BLP Conversations: Charles L. Bardes & Tom Sleigh

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

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In this conversation, Charles L. Bardes, physician and author of Pale Faces: The Masks of Anemia (from the BLP Pathographies series), and critically acclaimed poet Tom Sleigh explore the way myths influenced their psyches, and how the narratives of the gods were transposed onto classrooms and football games and suburban neighborhoods in their early writerly minds. Continue reading…


BLP Conversations: Austin Ratner & Joseph E. LeDoux

Welcome to the BLP Conversations series, featuring dialogues between people whose lifework, like BLP’s mission, explores the creative territory at the intersection of the arts and sciences, and has become a testament to how science and the humanities can join forces to educate and inspire. This online series is inspired by E.O. Wilson and Robert Hass, whose talk about the connections between science and the arts was published in our book The Poetic Species: A Conversation with Edward O. Wilson and Robert Hass.

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In the first installment of the BLP Conversations series, Austin Ratner, author of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature award–winning novel The Jump Artist, speaks to Joseph E. LeDoux, professor and director of the Emotional Brain Institute at NYU, about the brain-mind and art-science divides. Their conversation traverses the more provocative theories of biology, psychoanalysis, and technology—from emergent properties to Freud to the Singularity. While LeDoux, a neuroscientist, discusses the neurological complexities of fear, Ratner, a trained physician who left the field to focus on writing, comes to terms with his own fear of one day being replaced by a novel-writing robot. Continue reading…


Read excerpts from A Loaded Gun at Longreads and the Literary Hub.

Jerome Charyn explores Emily Dickinson’s tradecraft, imagining the poet as a 21st-century CIA analyst, in an exclusive outtake chapter from A Loaded Gun in Stay Thirsty Magazine.

Tune in to the Late Night Conversation podcast to hear our publisher Erika Goldman discuss being a part of the NYU School of Medicine and the nexus of art and science.

A cause for celebration… Tim Horvath’s first collection of short fiction, Understories, has received the New Hampshire Literary Award for Outstanding Fiction!

Melissa Pritchard talks about the narrative triptych structure of Palmerino with Connotation Press; explains why libraries have become her writing temples in Superstition Review; and shares stories about the sojourn in Italy that sparked the novel with ASU News.

Michael Coffey discusses how writing poetry led him to fiction and explains the autobiographical roots of The Business of Naming Things on Late Night Library’s “Late Night Conversation” podcast and with Kirkus Reviews, Shelf Unbound (p. 44), Book Q&As, and in two interviews with Publishers Weekly.

“Ransacking memory’s drawers will not suffice; one must consult sources to get the history and the scenography right.” Norman Lock shares his “Research Notes” for The Boy in His Winter with Necessary Fiction.

Preview The Boy in His Winter in Shelf Unbound (p. 30) and at The Collagist where Lock also delivers an “interview-in-excerpts,” channeling the voice of Huck Finn directly from the novel.

 

Read Sharona Muir’s New York Times op-eds: “Swan Lovers” and “The Crazy Puppy and the Flying Boy.”

“The short story can be a magical thing. It’s a breath, a moment, a captured mood.” To celebrate Short Story Month, Flavorwire asks “contemporary master of the form” and “virtuosic fabulist” Norman Lock to share a story he loves.

“Everything I do is in genuine pursuit of truth and beauty.” Austin Ratner, author of The Jump Artist, talks to the New York Times about giving up a career in medicine to move to Brooklyn and become a fiction writer.

Discover why Kirkus Reviews names Love Among the Particles a “Best Book Out This Week” by reading an excerpt from the collection at The Collagist and interviews with Norman Lock at Slice magazine and TSP: The official blog of The Story Prize.

 

Read an NPR interview with Eduardo Halfon, then tune in to NPR’s Alt.Latino to hear him spin tunes and talk about Guatemala, Latin American cultural identity, jazz, writing, living in Florida and Nebraska, the influence of Bob Dylan, and much more.

In selecting Ghost Moth for the Publishers Weekly “Best Summer Books” issue, co-editorial director Michael Coffey explains how “this amazingly assured first novel” found its home at BLP: “After receiving rejections from 38 publishers in the U.K. and Ireland, Forbes (an actress) got a tip from Paul Harding of Tinkers fame at the Dublin Writers’ Festival, which led her to send the manuscript to Bellevue.”

Congratulations to Bill Hayes, author of The Anatomist, on receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in Nonfiction! In this blog post, he talks about where he was when he got the news and the artists who have provided inspiration.

In the Passover edition of The Forward, Austin Ratner writes about the legacy of the Warsaw Ghetto, the psychology of bigotry, and the parable he found within Edward Reicher’s memoir, A Country of Ash, musing “that there would perhaps be fewer great sins in the world if people were not so frantic to purify themselves of small ones.”

Listen in on a very fun conversation with Tim Horvath and Brad Listi on the Other People podcast. Topics include their Midwestern childhood, bridge climbing in New York, the birthday they both share with Herman Melville, Dom DeLuise, and Jerry Garcia, and Tim’s “red hot” Understories.

Passion. Vision. Courage. Chance. BLP Publisher Erika Goldman and Akashic Books Managing Editor Johanna Ingalls discuss independent publishing and the unmistakable joy readers bring to all our endeavors: “When you put something out there that you’re passionate about and other people respond . . . there’s nothing like it.”

Irish author Michèle Forbes had trouble finding a publisher for her debut novel, Ghost Moth, until she sent her manuscript to Bellevue Literary Press. Read her story in the Irish Times and the find out more about its very happy ending in The Bookseller.

Bellevue Literary Press board member Jan Vilcek, MD, PhD receives the National Medal of Technology and Innovation

“It’s clearer than ever that our future as a nation depends on keeping th[e] spirit of curiosity and innovation alive in our time. These honorees are at the forefront of that mission.”

—President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama honored Jan Vilcek, MD, PhD with a prestigious National Medal of Technology and Innovation during a White House awards ceremony on February 1. This year eleven individuals received this medal, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government upon scientists, engineers, and inventors. We are deeply grateful to Dr. Vilcek for his service on our board—and for the contributions he has made to the arts and science communities throughout his extraordinary career.


Bellevue Literary Press is a finalist for AWP’s Small Press Publisher Award—an annual prize for nonprofit publishers that honors the “publication of consistently excellent work.” Winners will be announced this March at the AWP Annual Conference & Bookfair in Boston.

Melissa Pritchard talks about The Odditorium and the ways in which faith intersects with creativity with IMAGE: Art, Faith, Mystery and discusses how she brings passion and imagination to historical fiction with Kirkus Reviews and ASU News.

Eduardo Halfon talks about his life and work with Asymptote Journal, Latin American Literature Today, Jewish Journal, Mass Review, Dazed and Confused, Words Without Borders, Guernica, and Electric Literature; on the BBC program The Strand; with Jhumpa Lahiri and Ilan Stavans at the Literary Hub; and in this video from the UNESCO City of Literature “On the Fly: Writers on Writing” series.

Discover the remarkable story behind The Polish Boxer’s path to English publication (via New Spanish Books), more about its origins in Guernica, and how strange it is to be “Translated from English to English, by Way of Spanish” (via Words Without Borders).

“A Book Can Change the World”: Gordon Weiss on The Cage

As a publisher, it is one thing to believe that our books can change the world, but it’s an extraordinary feeling when those responsible for focusing attention on global affairs discover a book that guides their thinking. With The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers, we have published such a book. As diplomat Charles Petrie, who investigated the United Nation’s role and responsibilities during the Sri Lankan conflict, said:

“When I was commissioned to do this report, the first thing I was handed was a copy of The Cage. Weiss’s scrupulously balanced account should serve as a guidepost for decision-makers and scholars of international affairs. A book can change the world.”

Read more from Gordon Weiss about why he wrote The Cage:

My objective in writing The Cage was to challenge the myth that few civilians had been killed during the crushing of the Tamil Tigers by Sri Lankan government forces in 2009. I wanted to argue that given the nature of the long civil war, it was in some sense predictable that the conclusion of the war would be extremely vicious.

I had also been thinking about, or dealing with, many of the matters I discuss in this book in my daily work with the United Nations: human rights, international law, war, insurgency groups, nationalism, idealism, historical events, global currents, and the media, so The Cage was also an opportunity to distill some of those ideas, and bring them to bear on the topic at hand. Continue reading…


Gordon Weiss provides perspective about human rights abuses and the ongoing war crimes investigation in Sri Lanka with Radio New Zealand and on a harrowing ABC broadcast detailing new allegations of torture.

A very powerful op-ed by Gordon Weiss about the United Nation’s Petrie Report and its “second chance to right wrongs on Sri Lanka” appears in The Australian. Listen to him discuss this breaking news story with ABC Radio and read more from him at the BBC.

Literature as Life’s Laboratory: Welcome to Our New Website

Thanks to the dedicated staff at Sonnet Media, we now have a place to share all the stories behind the books we publish. Over the coming months, we’ll be adding Q&As with our authors, excerpts from their books, reading group guides, videos, and more. We are also excited to unveil our new logo, which impressed author Jonathan D. Moreno as being an accurate reflection of our belief that literature is indeed life’s laboratory. We hope you’ll visit us often to enjoy our latest concoctions.

While we’re thrilled to have found a new home online, it may be many weeks before we can return to our office in Bellevue Hospital Center. In the New England Journal of Medicine, our board member Eric Manheimer offers a personal reflection on Hurricane Sandy, aptly quoting Theodore Rothke in his epigraph: “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”

Also in the New England Journal of Medicine, Danielle Ofri, our board member and the editor of The Best of the Bellevue Literary Review, recounts the extraordinary efforts of New York University Medical Center staff in the wake of the hurricane and beautifully evokes the reason we are so proud to be a part of the NYUMC community:

“Bellevue’s enormity is more than its imposing physical presence, more than its legacy as the oldest public hospital in the country, more than its outsized reputation in popular culture. Its grandeur resides in its status as a living, breathing medical organism. It possesses a gritty industriousness and a cacophonous vitality. The ferocious loyalty it has engendered for the past 276 years is apparent in its staff as well as its patients. Many of us have spent our entire working lives at Bellevue and couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.”

We can’t wait to get back.

UPDATE: We are thrilled to announce, that as of March 29, 2013, we have returned to our offices in Bellevue Hospital.

 


Jonathan Moreno talks to Salon, answers “9 ½ Questions” at The Atlantic, and delves into the intersection between bioethics and politics on Point of Inquiry

Jonathan D. Moreno discusses biopreparedness on FOX News and pens an op-ed with Senator Tom Daschle on the 10th anniversary of the anthrax attacks at Politico.

Listen to an interview with the author on WHYY’s Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane and on KUOW’s Weekday.

Read an excerpt from Inukshuk and a self-interview with Gregory Spatz at The Nervous Breakdown.

Read about Gregory Spatz’s relationship to Sir John Franklin at Native Home of Hope, find out how Spatz’s path to writing began at an independent bookstore in San Rafael, California (via NW Book Lovers), and explore the research behind Inukshuk at Necessary Fiction and in Glimmer Train.

Discover how Gregory Spatz persisted through years of New Yorker rejections at The Quivering Pen and why the second movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony is “the most exquisitely, perfectly sad pieces of music [he has] ever heard” (via New England Review).

 

Tim Horvath discusses Understories with the Boston Globe, Bloom, and The Nervous Breakdownmuses on his inspirations at TSP: The official blog of The Story Prize; explains his offbeat research for the collection at Necessary Fictionanswers questions at Monkeybicycleoffers reading recommendations at The Short Formcontributes a guest post for Robert Lopez’ “No News Today” series; and talks to The Philadelphia Review of Book’s Andrew Ervin in a three way conversation with Gabriel Blackwell and Jensen Beach (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3).

Visit Storyville to download a selection from Understories and read Tim Horvath’s story about its inception.

Read a story from Understories and an interview with Tim Horvath about its origin at The Collagist.

Read more interviews with Tim Horvath about the art of teaching and writing in The Hippo and at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts website.

Calling all Moby-Dick fans! During NYC’s inaugural reading marathon, literary luminaries including Sarah Vowell, Rick Moody, Michele Filgate, Touré, and our own Tim Horvath read from the Herman Melville classic. The Daily News covers the festivities and Tim Horvath offers a field report from New Bedford, MA, where it all started.

Find out why NPR selected The Sojourn as one of “The Year’s Top 5 Book Club Picks” on Weekend Edition, listen to the review on All Things Considered, and hear Andrew Krivak read from the novel at NPR Books.

Andrew Krivak discusses the family history that inspired The Sojourn with Robin Young on WBUR Here and Now.

Read more from Andrew Krivak about The Sojourn and his inspirations as a writer in Poets & Writers, Fiction Writers Review, and Words With Writers.